A lot happened...

[freecat15]

It's been a while...
I had some busy and exciting weeks, so I just didn't find the time to post anything. Two weeks ago school started again, and the only one of us just going back there as before is my third son (a seventh grader now).
My oldest son graduated from high school in July and starts going to college in October. My second son left junior high school and is a sophomore student at high school now, and my daughter went from elementary to junior high (or middle school? I'm not really clear on what it's called. She's in fifth grade now).

And I, I said 'good bye' to my fourth graders in July, too (they also left elementary) and 'hello' to a new class of first graders last week which will be my class for the next four years.

I'm positively surprised by these students. I'm working in a school in a social hot spot with all the challenges you'd expect to have there, and my last class was - difficult. I loved them, but it took a lot of strength to work with them, even more than usual. The new ones seem to be a lot calmer and ready to observe the rules, and while there were some really aggressive vibes from day one in my last class, this one didn't show any sign of that until now. A LOT better start than four years ago, so I'm pretty happy. Of course there's the highly traumatized refugee boy who kind of does what he wants (and comes when he wants...), but he does it friendly. There's this other refugee boy that doesn't speak much German, but I gladly switched to English for the important things once I realized he speaks some. Also, he smiles all the time and is generally totally cute. Then there's this boy whose stepfather already threatened me and the principal (because we believed his son who said no one had beaten him, go figure), but his son is a little weird, but not aggresive at all. And the others are pretty normal, cute kids. Good times.

Meanwhile I got some more banners *beams* :





They are all made by the wonderful red_satin_doll, and as always with her banners they are not just gorgeous, but bring out the icons even better than they are solo!

And then there was the first challenge over at btvs_lims, and what I never expected - I survied it, without a single vote against my icon at that! There was really tough competition, awesome icons all around, so I'm beyond happy I still survived! Tonight is the deadline of the second challenge with the voting probably posted tomorrow, so go have a look and maybe even vote.

To complete the good things happening to me lately - another one of my fics has been nominated at wicked_awards ! It was my entry at seasonal spuffy - A New Life. It's not that I see any chance in winning anything there, the competition is way too strong, but just being nominated means someone thought it worthy, and that is just neat! So THANK YOU whoever did it!!! You absolutely made my day!

Comments

[freecat15.livejournal.com]

I liked your icon much better than mine (it's the BuffyBot) and was really, really glad that only one maker had to go this time! I thought the not-quite-sharpness of yours together with the not really identifiable shadow in the background gave the icon a dreamy quality, which I really liked!

I think it's a sign of the overall quality of all the icons that people latch onto what can be seen as a fault, which in this case was the lack of sharpness, deliberate or not. It's exactly what I feel right now, trying to decide which one of the new icons to vote out while thinking they are all very, very good. It's nitpicking, and since everybody nitpicks according to their own personal preferences it doesn't really say much about how good an icon really is. Difficult.

[double_dutchess]

I liked your icon much better than mine (it's the BuffyBot)

Thanks! I wasn't very satisfied with my own icon though; it was really bland compared to the others. (And yes, it was deliberately blurry, but I should have been more subtle about applying the blur.) I much preferred yours. I loved the text and the background in combination with the perky Buffybot.

I completely agree with what you say about nitpicking / looking for faults. I am also having a really difficult time selecting two icons to vote out.

[freecat15.livejournal.com]

'compared to the others' - This is often what happens to me; I'm fairly content with what I did, and then it's displayed between all the others, and suddenly it looks too dark, or too saturated, not sharp enough or too sharp. Or, you know, too bland (and I don't agree with you there, even though I can see why you would think so).

I still love it :)
Also, I still love very much this Willow icon (and it's so much better than the one of the same cap from the first challenge (which I voted out). Apart from the other reasons that were mentioned from those who voted it out, none of which applied to your version, yours emphasizes so much better Willows loneliness in that moment! I really love it and it deserved to be mod's choice in that challenge.


There. :)
Good luck for this round's voting!

[double_dutchess]

Thanks! I've got to admit I'm quite happy with the Willow icon myself. And I still love yours a lot too! The idea behind it is so great and so well-expressed.

I've cast my votes for the second challenge, but I'm not at all sure about my second vote... I didn't really want to vote against any of the remaining icons. Tough choice!

[freecat15.livejournal.com]

It really is. I voted yesterday, but it took me more than half an hour to write the comment, because I changed the votings about ten times...