As many of you know my fiance and I live at Fort Hood. The whole army base is locked down. The barracades are up. No one is allowed in or out. The phones are jammed for the most part and calls are nearly impossible. The whole ordeal happened across the street from where my fiance and roommate work. Yeager is home safe with me and can't get back on post with the rest of the unit. My fiance Ski is stuck on base near by three of the shooting locations. Last I heard at 2pm while this was all going on that he was safe and trying to account for the where abouts of all his soldiers. 12 are dead and 31 wounded was the last update and we dont' know if any are our friends or from Ski's unit yet. We have reports of at least 5 locations on the base where people were shot. All the local schools are locked down too. People living in on-base housing have been instructed to stay inside and close their ventilation systems. Basically this is being treated as an unofficial terrorism attack.

One shooter has been identified as an Army Major who worked as a psychiatrist in the military hospital and a recently converted Muslim. He was killed in the gunfire. There are other shooters unidentified as of now. The buildings attacked were centers used for training soldiers preparing for deployment and where they received help after returning from deployments. We are currently waiting for more news from the general and the names of the killed and wounded released.

Update: As I was writing this I just spoke with Ski. He is fine but his phone is dying because he's letting his soldier use it to call their families. Luckily he has one fo the few so far that haven't been getting cut off and disconnected. Everyone is locked down in basements and inside the buildings.

I will post updates as we find out here.

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As was suggested by `FantasyStock and $Moonbeam13 I decided to join in on self-promotion month. Granted October is almost over btu there's still time to get yourself out there for the dA world to see!

1. Who are you?
I'm an east coast girl currently living in central Texas with my fiance and our absolute zoo of animals. He's in the army and I'm well used to living the military life as difficult as it may get at times. I work as a Veterinary Technician at a local animal hospital and I love it! Animals are my life and generally I like them a lot more then people. I'm also a huge tomboy. If there's a sport to play or adventure to go on you can sure count me in. I don't mind getting my hands dirty.

2. What is your artistic passion?
I love drawing dragons. They seem to be my calling but I'm also a huge fan of beauty in nature. Texas is awesome for stunning skies and striking sunsets. Tattoos I think are the ultimate dedication to permanent art. As you can tell I have passion in a lot of different areas but dragons tend to be my main focus.

3. Why did you get into art?
My mom is a very skilled artist and always encouraged me to explore my own talents at a young age. The feeling of accomplishment I get from completing a piece is amazing. The drive to constantly improve and possibly get some recognition for my work beyond friends and family keeps me going besides my own personal satisfaction. it doesn't matter the medium, I'll give anything a try and love the varying ways to produce a piece of art.

4. How do you inspire yourself?
Anne McCaffery's books area big part of my inspiration. The world of Pern has endless possibilities. I also get inspired by the world around me. My pets make awesome models for new poses and there's never a shortage of suggestions coming from my friends. I like looking at he work of people I admire. It drives me to keep drawing and work harder to pick up the techniques I'm lacking in. Music is great for any artist's block. I just blast some hardcore or punk and it gives me the motivation to get to work and really focus on a task.

5. Where would you like to see yourself in 5 years?
In five years my fiance and I will be married (well much sooner then that) and hopefully we'll have a house of our own. I'll still be working at a veterinary clinic while I go to school part time to finally become a Veterinarian. I'm wishing by that point that I can keep doing my art as I am now and possibly making some money from it.


I don't have a portfolio yet but here's some thumbs of my better work.


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Brushes by *gvalkyrie

I've been neglecting my art horribly so far this year. The stress of my fiance being deployed and trying to settle back into normal life when he came home in July has been rough. Honestly I got lazy and uninspired the past 9 months. It was easier to come home and do nothing or work my ass off at my job then be creative by any means. Depression doesn't help matters either. Just when I though I had it under control, all my favorite hobbies were totally ignored. For me that's the biggest sign that depression's hitting.

Now Ski's been home nearly a month and a half. I'm a lot happier obviously and feeling more inspired every day. It took a few weeks before I could find the focus to write again and the urge to draw has just started. I'm managing to balance work, college, time with Ski and my hobbies again. It's always a good sign when the voices of your RP characters start speaking up and demand that you sit down to write. Now I'm carrying a small sketch pad around the house. Anytime I catch the cats in a funny sleeping position I draw it out. They're amazing help when it comes to breaking out of my normal stiff dragon poses.

Music is a miracle worker! It's impossible to stay down when you've got such great tunes to get you through the day. Music makes me happy, especially when it's live. Thank you so much to my little brother Madison and army buddy Hare for introducing me to some amazing new punk and hardcore bands. With them I've passed my 9 months alone rocking out and heading to every concert I can hit in a 100 mile radius of home. They helped the time pass by quicker. Since Ski's been home we've had an awesome time seeing our friends Ember play and even got to see Mayhem Fest this year! I'll always be a CTHC girl at heart! I grew up following the bands from tiny venues to national shows and I doubt that will ever change as I get older.

Thank you to my friends and family who know me well enough when times get dark. They're the people who give me a good slap and drag me out of the house to have fun again.

The future?
For art, I'm currently working on some new dragon sketches inspired by my sleeping kitties. I want to keep developing my skills and finally get some good use out of the tablet my parents got me for my birthday. Embreth's reference was just the beginning of the level I'd like to achieve and surpass with my art. Mixing drawn dragons and real photos of people is very hard to pull off but that one piece is one of my proudest moments. I have no shortage of dragons to draw and ideas rolling around in my head.

I have a lot of tattoo work to get started on too. I have a tattoo project for my dear friend Cass that I can't wait to sit down and work on. Ski has given me free reign of designing half of his body too. I'll be working with our tattoo artist Roman on getting everything down on paper and inked into Ski's skin.

As for the rest of life, I'm currently in my second semester of college for my second degree. I got stuck on my English essays for months but I'm made a bit of progress. I just really hate structured writing with 50 million pre-writing steps.

Our furry crew has grown. We still have our three cats (Syndher, Hayze and Riley) and snake Elly. She's finally shedding and eating regularly again. Our newest editions are Kiira my sable German Shepard pup and Rascal, Nick's husky pup who lives with us. Kiira is the half sister to my black Shepard Riddick. Buddy and Tank are still hanging around being the always lovable lazy boys. They both have finally filled out and look like solid dogs for once instead of lanky awkward adolescents. Tank tips the scale at over 100lbs now!

I'm still the head technician at a local animal hospital. I've got a great crew to work with and the surgeries I assist with every day keep life very interesting. Ski gets out of the Army next Marc and is headed to the police academy. We're planning on getting married in the coming months and starting to save up for a house.

Life is good right now and I can only hope it continues to stay that way!

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Journal CSS made by =caybeach
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