Only one more exam thank God! Then I will hopefully have more time to do artwork and check out artwork, so expect more activity from me soon!

Okay, I have to share some good news because I'm just quite frankly thrilled about it!

Some of you know and some you don't know that my parents are divorced (thank god). As this is britain and a supposedly civilised nation, he had to start paying us child support. That was... eleven years ago and for a time things were working out fine.

Then, two years or so ago, my father took early retirement, getting 50 THOUSAND pounds as support funds and immediately making sure to inform the CSA (child support agency) so as to get our policy adjusted so that he wouldn't have to pay us anything. (We'd had some problems at the beginning with him switching jobs as often as possible so the CSA could never force him to pay anything, so we were waiting for him to figure something out).

Only, the CSA, in their government ways, took two years to get around to making a proper survey and adjusting the pay. Only, during that time they'd still been taking the money out of his acount and putting it in my mums.

So they figured out that nearly six grand had been paid to us that shouldn't have been... And sent us a poorly spelt and frankly rude letter saying that we would have to pay it back.

I'd like to point out, we wouldn't be getting child support if we weren't already at the lower end of the financial ladder. Not only that, but my mum has leukaemia, which has one rather major trigger for coming out of remission. Stress. Don't worry, we were fortunate. But rather understandably furious.

So, as you can imagine, we refused to pay. In fact, we started taking action. Mum wrote to the local MP and then started collecting information on other cases that had been handled so poorly. She started talking to lawyers and considered going to the media, especially since a lady had just recently been on the news furious about her own (rather appalling) case.

Then we got a timid call. "Um, we've decided to review your case and, um, to write off your debt. We'll ah, even give you some compensation!" (It was only £70 but we were too happy about the loss of debt either way).

Well you can imagine our joy at that moment!

Now we've gotten even more good news. Father-dearest had re-employed his method of skipping about from job to job and spending some periods of time completely unemployed so we'd had even more difficulty getting the rest of the child support deal sorted out. Then Sophie discovered he'd started working abroad by a slip of the tongue from his long-term girlfriend. Mum phoned the CSA and asked them to do another review to see if we should be getting any money now.

They got back to us within a few weeks this time *happy grin* to inform us that yes, in fact we should be getting some money and that daddy-dearest would have to pay us in arrears for the time he spent skipping about too, considering the fact that he's actually got quite a bit more money than us now and is earnning a decent amount too!

So finally, some good news (brilliant news!) that has provided us with some much-needed reassurance!

I'm not going to count my chickens too fast though! Who knows what method he'll employ to get out of paying us next? *rolls eyes*

But yay for good news! And with the lovely weather we've been having lately I'm feeling... Languidly happy!

Love to you all!

Stolen from

How much of your teenage life have you messed up?

[ x ] gotten detention - (ple~enty of times!)
[ ] gotten a phone taken away in class
[ ] gotten suspended
[ x ] gotten caught chewing gum (Got caught once and managed to spend the entire rest of the time not getting caught! Well they were always on about dental hygiene in primary *shrugs*)
[ ] gotten caught cheating on a test

Total so far: 2

[ x ] arrived late to class more than 5 times (5 times? Just about EVERY class I've been on!)
[ x ] didnt do homework over 5 times (I agree, what was the point? I kicked every single failure opinion into the ground, so it worked for me!)
[ x ] turned at least 3 projects in late (Procrastination is my worst flaw!)
[ x ]missed school just because you felt like it (hehe, it got even easier in sixth form too... *sheepish grin* I was such a bad kid!)
[ x ] laughed so loud you got kicked out of class (... *cough*)

Total So Far: 7

[ x ] got your mom, dad, etc. to get you out of school (I hated school when I was younger, I stayed out as often as poss.)
[ x ] text people during class (all the da~amn time!)
[ x ] passed notes (lol, we had whole conversations just in passing notes... only ever got caught once *so proud*)
[ x ] threw stuff across the room (paper plane! *wheeeee*)
[ x ] laughed at the teacher (hasn't everyone?)

Total So Far : 12

[ x ] been in a fight at school, fist, verbal (Pretty much every type imaginable. I was an angry kid *muses*)
[ x ] taken pictures during school hours (there was a contest in one my classes to see who could get the best photo during a lesson, I didn't win but it was fun trying!)
[ x ] called someone during school hours (both on purpose, and by accident... *sheepish grin*)
[ x ] listened to ipod, cd, etc during school hours (I got bored easily. Used to read in class too!)

Total So Far : 16

[ x ] threw something at the teacher (I honestly didn't mean to! It was a magazine and she'd told me to give it to her, I put it down on her desk with a bit much force and it slipped on some papers and landed in her lap... Got yelled at for ages! I'd rather get told off for something I meant to do!)
[ x ] went outside the classroom without permission (agreed, when you gotta go you gotta go!)
[ x ] broke the dress code (had a nose stud! Got hunted down for the rest of my school career, but I went over the deputy-heads... head, and argued it out with the headmaster who let me off! NYAHA!)
[ ] failed a class
[ x ] ate food during class (sweets mostly)

Total So Far : 20

[ x ] gotten a call from school (pa~ainful... *wince*)
[ ] couldn' t go on a field trip cause you behaved badly
[ x ] didn't take your stuff to school (lol, felt like a plonker!)
[ x ] stuck up finger when the teacher was not looking (Fortunately never been caught, but I know some people who have!)
[ x ] cursed during class loud enough so the teacher could hear you (Urgh *covers eyes in embarrassment*)

Total So Far : 24

[ x ] faked your parents signature (*cough*)
[ x ] slept in class (And snored! *groans* REALLY embarrassing!)
[ ] cursed at teacher
[ x ] copied homework (heh, usually after I've decided it's not worth doing and had sudden change of heart!)
[ x ] got in trouble with the principal (... skipping school...)

Total So Far : 28


*Multiply by 3*
Repost as "I messed up ...% of my teenage life"

84%... lol oh dear! *grins*

Okay, this is really really bugging me actually. How many times have you clicked onto a deviation lately and found in the description "Comment, don't fave! If you can take the time to fave you can take the time to comment!".

Wow. You know, that's kind of a deterrent to even bother looking at your deviation. Why?

What if I don't want to litter your inbox with "Awww cute!" or "Looks good!" messages? What if, I love your picture, but I can't decide what it is that I like the most? Or that I'm shy? Or that I just can't think what to say? What if I'm dyslexic and prefer faving images due to grammar/spelling-nazis? Perhaps I'm working at a computer with a broken keyboard and still want to show my appreciation for your image in some way.

I like faving. I prefer it to commenting. Yes, my reasons are up there; though some of them I've heard from others. Faving means I don't want to just leave a meaningless sentence on your piece, or that I can't find anything to criticise and, instead, love your picture so much that I want to save it in a place I'll get to look at it again and again. Perhaps later on when I've enjoyed viewing it a few times I might decide I want to tell you just how much I like it, although I certainly won't even consider that if I then get a message from you saying "Uh, comment, idiot. It's just plain rude.".

Actually, that's far more likely to get me to tell you where you can shove your comment. And yes, that's a real message I got. I won't say from who, I like to think I'm a LITTLE less vindictive... *cough*

By all means, message me and ask me what I liked about it. I'll more than likely answer politely and tell you. I see no reason why not. Leave a note in your description that you would like comments. Not something telling me that I'm a lazy lay-about if I only fave. It's rude. And offensive. And I know a good deal of people who get quite annoyed and upset about it. We show our appreciation. In some ways, we show it even more by faving. It tells you that we want to see it again, we want to remember it, we want to have it somewhere nearby.

I can understand that it gets frustrating getting so many faves and little in way of comments. Hell I've had that happen to me too. But alienating those people who've chosen to show appreciation for your work in whatever small way they could is certainly not the best way to get comments. Just pick a name, send a polite message asking calmly if they would be so kind as to tell you why they chose to fave your work. If they say no, move on, ask someone else. There is always someone who's probably just been a bit harried and unsure of how to phrase their thoughts at the time and will likely be more than happy to just give you a brief (or extensive) answer. And yeah, I'm one of them (and it'll probably be extensive in my case!).

I'm sorry to all those wonderful people who are always grateful for their faves, especially to those who comment "thanks" on a deviant's front page. I'm just, annoyed. Aggravated. And I know this probably won't even matter to most people, but I want to get your thoughts. Argue your case! Do you prefer faves or comments? And why one or the other? Do you get upset by the messages or do you completely agree with them?

I'm curious and I'm not going to slate you for your views! I'm just annoyed with the rudeness that some people employ. I completely support polite requests!

Let me know what you think?

... Mudkip?

E~evil DA!

... I wanna Flareon... *cries*



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And YAY for NO MORE LENT!!! *gorges self on chocolate*

Hope everyone had a good easter!