old-fashioned

Recently we have been having fires in our woodstove, which I LOVE. To me, there's almost nothing better on a cold day than to stand by that fire stove. Well, being somewhat pyro I can't help but mess around with the matches and lighter that sit next to the stove - and one day a few weeks ago I discovered that if I rub the flint of a lighter enough to make sparks, little flashes of light would blink on the top of the stove. What is it? They look like sparks, but smaller. Very bright, but small as a speck of sand, and it only lasts for a split second. Happens in pretty random places too, but all on the top of the stove and on the chimney pipe too. My dad told me to stop it with the lighter because I'd wear out the flint on it, so he gave me some huge tool that sparks when you squeeze the metal together. Awl right! Now I make sparks and an eruption of little sparkles dance across the top of the stove. He suggests it's bit of flint on the stove that somehow are triggered by the friction in the air of metal on metal. I found, however, that the stove has to be very hot, with a roaring fire inside, for this to work. Anybody know exactly what's going on here?
Since I was feeling experimental I took my mom's new digital camera and set it to a 3 or 4 second exposure and took some of the sparkles. I don't have those pictures on this computer but next time I'm on my mom's mac I'll show you. Pretty cool results!
In other news...
My boss gave me an agenda calendar that she needed to get rid of I guess, and it turns out that a lot of the pictures inside are of the old style that I really love. I can't get enough of the illustrations of the twentys and thirties, or even illustrations from before that time period. I also love music from that era and fashion too...guess I'm kind of old fashioned... Anyway, here are a few pictures from it, I can't help but share...
Also I'm pretty sure I'm going to apply for this program thats happening in the summer at CalArts, called InnerSpark. I've known about it for a few years now and have always been interested in the animation course they have. I know that CalArts was founded by Walt Disney, or partially founded by him maybe. But I also know that it's one of the top schools for animation in the nation, and one of the hardest to get into (not to mention one of the most expensive too). So I'm really keeping my fingers crossed, hoping that I can get into this four-week thing. Here are a few sketches from my new fancy sketchbook (which I LOVE!); the one of the girl playing cards is not mine. It would be, in my dreams!