Nice and relaxing pic! ^-^

Lovely...

I envy your view... the rent would be astronomical x.x

It would be something like $850 to $1,100 a month depending on the size and age of the apartment. Views don't affect the value of a property here much, as far as I can tell. fortunately for me, this building is city property, a relice of a by-gone age when it was thought proper for the public to own and run subsidized housing for the working poor, those on fixed pensions, and so on. Now we all now this is evil socialism at work, and Gawd wants the disadvantatged to live on the street and starve. That's what he made 'em for... But the city still has the old properties and there's enough political pressure to preserve them. Otherwise I'd probably have to live in a dingy one room hole and work at Blockbuster 48 hours a week to pay the $800 a month rent, leaving me with a choice between a social life/hobbies and drawing. Clearly free enterprise makes the best of all possible worlds!

I like the rendering here. There is just enough information in the background for us to know where we are and who we're dealing with. What is striking is the sensation. I hope to capture that one day in my own work. The best I have done for now is an image featuring Aku and his friend Fay in a lovely cuddle. I will explore those kinds of visual sensations in the future, certainly so!

I just wish I'd not made Saars so squat. I think I must have started with her head and worked down, before realizing there wasn't quite enough space. Since it was a sketchbook deal for someone, I didn't just start all over again, as I might have otherwise. (Ever try to erase in a crappy sketchbook?)

The view is fairly accurate though.

Nicely done, It has a nice romantic feel

I wonder if one can swim into toronto undetected at night via lake ontario.......hmm.....

Yes... if you can swim twenty or so miles. As a matter of fact, long distance swimming used to be a popular sport. Only pros would ever attempt it of course. I think the first person to swim Lake Ontario was Marilyn Bell, who swam from the American side to a spot on the Toronto lakeshore near here in 1954. As sports go, its fallen out favour. Not much in it for the spectator, I suppose. Someone swimming. For fifty or sixty hours. Whoopie.

and the coast guards.......at night.....I gotta be stealthy enough not to be seen by the border patrol

What coast guard patrols? There's been a treaty between the US and Canada since (probably) the War of 1812 that bars armed vessels on the Great Lakes.

Mind you, there are infrequent tours of warships, usually nothing very large and I can't remember when the last time was.

There are also police boats -- usually nothing bigger than an ordinary recreational motorboat, with the police carrying sidearms.

There is a Coast Guard on the Great Lakes, but its mainly concerned with rescue. The police handle that on the lower lakes, which are smaller and heavily populated. But Lake Superior in particular is rather sparsely populated, and the huge size of it leds to storms that are almost as violent as though in the open seas, and usually a whole lot more sudden. The Coast Guard boats wouldn't be armed though, except possibly side arms if thought necessary.

The border between Canada and the US has been called The World's Longest Undefended border, and it's largely true. You can walk back and forth from one country to the other in many places. At most border crossing points, where highways connect major and minor urban centers, there's an inspection gate. Most of my life they just asked a couple of questions like "citizenship?" "where are you going?", and finished up with "hae a good time". US crossing guards were often armed, but Canadian ones not.

With the US a lot more paranoid after the attack on the World Trade Center, and what with the Bush White House's interest in creating a Fortress American mentality, the border isn't as friendly as it was. He's begun programs to use remote sensors and air survellance to keep farmers from strolling over the border, lest they be carrying 400 kg. of marijuana in their blue jeans pockets. Now Americans have to have passports to re-enter their own country from Canada, and of course Canadians need passports to enter the US at all. (I have a passport now, for the first time in my life, and it feels like a ball and chain.) I wouldn't be too surprised if armed helicopter patrols or armed warships would be next on the agenda. It wouldn't be the first treaty the Republicans have torn up.

But its likely there'll be a Democrat president next. Possibly the move to the far right and a climate of fear will finally end.

so you're saying it's safe to swim across at night without getting my ass blown out of the water?

Absolutely! You'll freeze or drown before its even an issue! This time of the year the water temperature is about 1 celsius. It hasn't actually frozen, though, or you might try to walk across.

(random fanfiction)

(in the future.....the year 2020.....when mankind is finally accepted into the intersteller community........after the kjola have helped mankind)


(the scene shows the inside of a Museum in willowrun dedicated to things of the past.......it is being visited by humans and aliens who have come to see the various exhibits......here,we have a group of children from a school in willowrun on a field trip)

school teacher:
alright class.....I want you on your best behavior here.....you will go around the museum looking at the various exhibits.....and be back here in one hour.......

random kid:
miss lanning....what about that?......(points towards a display showing a 1.75 m tall chinese boy frozen and Cryogenically preserved in ice)

school teacher:
well......the description is right there.......in a voice description.....just press the button.....

museum professor:
or you can just ask me........can I help you?

another random kid:
tell us about that guy.......

other school children:
yeah!.....tell us please!

museum professor:
well......we found the body in the year 2013.......apparently,he was frozen when he tried to swim across lake ontario in toronto undetected at night.......his body was discovered still frozen by an ice fisherman and brought here for showcasing.

random kid:
why not thaw him out?

museum professor:
that would be unthinkable......a prophecy foretold that he would be a leader of a new generation of communists because of his birthdate.......and he would lead a army of rogue humans...aliens and sentient machines to conquer the galaxy.....it would be unthinkable to let him thaw!.......he would be known as emperor nigel!

random kid:
how did you know his name?

museum professor:
we received an anonymous phonecall from some with the letters T.W in his name describing this boy.......

male kjola:
And you didn't think that our governments might need to know that you're keeping a hostile potential tyrant frozen as something to show off!?

museum professor:
relax.....as long as he's frozen we have nothing to fear.

(from a nearby cafe......a familar female Teh Langgi hears the conversation.....it reminds her of a time when she went to a vacation spot with her kjola friend)

(meanwhile....it seems that a terrorist group has their sights on the museum)

terrorist one:
our future leader is captive in that building.......

terrorist two:
then we'll just have to bomb it to the ground comrade!

terrorist one:
affrimative!

I always kind of liked this one, considering how familiar I've grown with the view.

Humber Bay looks pretty great, too. ;)