Tuesday, August 28, 2012

Recent Exploits

Aside from my crusading for Susan, what else have I been doing?

Well....

I've recently become the Social Media Maven for Short Wing Productions, a co-op type company founded and run by my friends Genie Willett and Alexandra Gioulakis. I'm very excited about this, as I'm working with people I love, and I get to play online a lot for them. Yes please! You will be seeing fantastic work coming from them soon enough. First up is their short, Pizza Time.

Speaking of Social Media, I've begun blogging for Kristen Nedopak, creator of The Skyrim Parodies. Kristen is a busy lady, and she always has lots of adventures. I get more added fun as I get to learn about WordPress.  Here's my first post for her:

To Lydia With Love Goes to Dragon*Con!

Really? I'm excited about WordPress? Who have I become??? I dunno, but it's good times.

My other favorite side-project that I've got going on, is working as photographer for my roomie Trina's fashion blog: Operation Wear My Closet.

Not only do I get to take pictures of the pets, (weeee!), but it's very fun for me to think of new angles to help highlight Trina's outfit and get her to pose in fun and different ways. I wind up taking TONS of pics, and Trina selects the ones she likes best. She's been doing it since the beginning of the year and it's been a fun project to help out on. I do like taking pictures.....









These are all pursuits that I hope open up new worlds for me. The plan is to never need an office job again. The more I can play and work with creativity and my creative friends, the better. I'm reinvesting my time in vlogging and blogging and staying in touch with the world. You'll also notice there's a lot of Scotty the Kitten videos on my YouTube Channel. A couple of weeks ago, I fostered him for about 5 days, and then took him up to my family. I hadn't taken care of a young kitten in such a long time! I'm pretty sure I have hundreds of pictures of him just from those first couple of days. Heee. Mom tells me he is happily prancing around, chasing anything that moves, and even other random things that don't. Look for #ScottyTheKitten on Twitter to keep up on his cuteness.  


Monday, August 27, 2012

Thank You For Helping Susan!!

I am pleased to announce that through the efforts of friends, and friends of friends, we raised just about $1200 for Susan this weekend. We paid for her August rent, and she can now get some groceries and pay some other bills.

SO THANK YOU!



While Susan's waiting for her disability to kick in, she's still got her many hats on, in the air, everywhere.

Find her art (oil and watercolor) here: http://art.lifeonitsside.com

Find her Fiverr copywriting/editing gig here: http://fiverr.com/side_life 

UPDATE: Find her handcrafted Kanji Jewelry here on Fiverr: http://fiverr.com/side_life/create-a-handcrafted-kanji-necklace-out-of-polymer-clay

You can still send her donations, if you'd like, via PayPal at susan@lifeonitsside.com. I know some people have mailed in contributions, and this effort is just truly touching. You're all a bunch of angels.

If you want to know what lead to this mass effort of fundraising, look at my last post: Help A Susan Out, Yo. 

Here's Susan on her first day of chemo, and where she become a BAMF in my eyes: Susan's First Day of Chemo.

Here's my post on Susan as The Bravest Storyteller I Know.

Friday, August 24, 2012

Help a Susan Out, Yo.

Susan's had a rough time of it, no doubt.

We've raised money for her through Give Forward, which was wonderful. She's been working as much as possible as a Fine Art Teacher to kids, and she's started up her own copywriting business through Fiverr.com. I've shared her vlogs with you and now I'm gonna share a video of my own:



I think the fastest/easiest way to support Susan, is to send a donation in to her via PayPal at her email address: susan@lifeonitsside.com. $1, $5, doesn't matter, because every little bit will help. 

If you want to support her through her art, look here for her watercolors.  Look here for her oil paintings. 

Soon enough, she'll be opening up her own little shop online where you can buy her handcrafted jewelry. Oooh! I'll link to that as soon as I can.

In a world of crowdfunding for video games, webseries, adventures, and more, I think it's possible that we can raise at least $850 for Susan. That's a pittance compared to most campaigns!

No matter what, please share this post. Spread the word. I think we can help Susan.

THANK YOU!

Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Susan Lee - The Bravest Storyteller I Know

My last post showed a wee little video of Susan knitting during her first chemo treatment.

Since then, her hair fell out, and she embraced it. Like REALLY embraced it. Here's her video of cutting off all her hair:



Like most of us creative people, Susan is a storyteller. It's a very important place in society. I think we need storytellers. We have to share our experiences with each other, because it helps us connect - connect to each other as a species, to the heavenly beings above and beyond, to every creature that inhabits this earth.

The art of telling a story is primal. It cannot be helped, and it oozes out of our hearts and souls in many aspects. Susan's one of those people where it just flows in abundance. She writes, paints, draws, directs, produce, knits, you can't stop the art flowing out of her if you wanted to.

I'm extremely inspired by her as she has been sharing her story with us. That video is just plain fun, and don't you find it extremely touching as well?

She's had her second round of treatment. Boy, has this round changed some things. There is a ton of shit going on in her life, and it definitely is scaring the crap out of her. But look what she did:



She embraced her change, and connected with a couple of lovely artistic souls, (Adam Southard and Melissa Collins), to share this story of Body and Soul. 

This next video came yesterday. She is in a huge place of transition, and you'll see why if you watch the video. It's fucking scary, and I want to share this with you all, because it needs to be shared. Susan's Storytelling Soul is coming out in spades, and this is where we connect, People: when we're scared, we're lonely, and we're fighting uphill battles.



I just want to honor and thank Susan for being so brave. 'Cuz Lord knows how I would handle this. If you feel the need to connect to Susan, to send her some love, you can find her on Twitter at: @LifeOnItsSide.

Susan's not backing down. BAMF