Renezuo

Got a contest I'm trying to put together, and I just wanted to bring everyone's attention to it over on DA. I'm having a series of polls there that will help decide what the contest will concern, right now that poll concerns which of my characters it will revolve around? What's the prize you ask? Well I'm not willing to reveal that just yet in full, but I got something pretty unique for the winner, and may have multiple prizes with the more that people enter. So please I encourage everyone to bounce on over to my name on DA (Renezuo) and cast a vote on the poll posted on the front page!

EDIT: the URL for my DA Page: http://renezuo.deviantart.com/

A little past midnight last night as the new year was still being rung in, people in Louisiana were setting off fireworks. Me among them, its part of the thing. I picked up one of the smaller ones after the main big boomers were set off. It stood maybe four inches in height, and was one of those ones that looked like you set it on the ground and it fired sparks and smoke and made noise. Nothing huge. Well something went wrong. Despite the fuse being more than long enough, the whole thing went up instantaneously. The fuse flashed, there was a bang and I felt like I'd been punched in the face harder than I've ever been hit before. The top must have blown off and struck me or something, we don't really know.

Laura had been telling me she didn't like fireworks and had been going on about how I was gonna blow myself up. That was all I could think of at first, and the fact that I was going to be blind. I blind fucking artist. It's one of my worst fears, along with injuring my hands. Because that's sort of what I've always done, draw. Since I was 2 I was known for drawing, I've not always been the best at it, I'm in awe of many of the people who I know, and tons more on DA alone. But when people thought of me... mostly art went hand in hand with it. So to have that taken from me just... bang... like that. Scares the hell out of me. "Without art, who am I?" you know what I mean?

Laura's family got me to the emergency room, and the people at the hospital were fast and professional. Some cracked jokes but kept it appropriate and kept it friendly. They number me up and got to looking at my eyes, testing them, and stitching me up.

So far we're still unsure of the extent to which this will affect me in the long term. I have nine stitches in my left eye, burns on the side of my head, and there was a lot of blood for a while, even after we came home. When the eye is forced open I can see things out of it, but its all blurry. One of the main reasons I can even type this is because I have most of the keys on my keyboard memorized...and spell check. Lots and lots of spell check. With time I can focus with my right eye to read things, so if anyone sees me online and wants to talk... be patient. I apologize to those on MSN who would like to talk to me, I don't have messenger on my laptop. It's just AIM for now.

To those who I still owe commissions, I'm sorry. I really am. Despite it being a malfunction I still feel like this is my fault for being a retard with fireworks. So if anyone wants a refund, I understand, as for now I don't know when the next time I'll be drawing anything or CGing anything. I don't know how this will affect school, or work, or.....anything. I still have yet to see an eye doctor who is going to have a closer look at the damage. In the ER they can only use a black light to detect surface damage, and there was what looked like a superficial scratch over the cornea, which is nothing really. But they need a guy to have a deeper look, so we'll see. I hope to be able to do work again soon, and I apologize again to anyone who didn't get their commissions. If you want your money back just let me know in a Note on DeviantArt, an e-mail to Renezuo@aol.com, or Message me on AIM at Renezuo.

I hope everyones 2009 is better than mine, and for those who's natural human curiosity would like to see more, I'll post pics of the damage later. But I'll give fair warning first to those who don't.

Pics are linked off of my DA, I haven't figured out how to do links here yet.